1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washing machine, more particularly, to a washing machine having a floatage clutch that performs the intermittence of power in cleansing and dehydrating operations by using the floatage thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally speaking, a washing machine is used to clean, rinse and dehydrate clothes and the like by using a mechanical operation via an electric driving motor. The washing machine includes a cleansing part for performing a cleansing work, and a driving part for driving the cleansing part. The washing machines can be classified into agitator type washing machines, drum type washing machines, and pulsator type washing machines according to a cleansing manner of the cleansing part.
The cleansing part of the pulsator type washing machine as described above, as shown in FIG. 1, includes a water tub 12 installed in a case 10, a cleansing basket 14 rotatably contained in the water tub 12, a pulsator 16 disposed at the bottom of the cleansing basket for forming a water stream, a water tab 17, and a drain valve 18. The cleansing basket 14 is punched with numerous dehydration holes 14a in a sidewall thereof.
In addition, the driving part includes a driving motor 20, a transmission 30 and a clutch mechanism 40 for driving the pulsator 16 and the cleansing basket 14 by receiving a driving force of the driving motor 20, a belt connection means for transferring the driving force of the driving motor 20 to the clutch mechanism 40, and a brake means for maintaining the stable fixed state of the transmission 30.
As shown in FIG. 2, the transmission 30 includes a gear box 32, an upper and lower pulsator shafts 33 and 34 connected each other via a gear means disposed within the gear box 32, and a spin shaft 35 fixed to the gear box 32 (See FIG. 4). The upper pulsator shaft 33 is designed to be rotatably fitted in the spin shaft 35 and connected to the pulsator 16. The spin shaft 35 is connected to the cleansing basket 14 and fixed to the gear box 32. The lower pulsator shaft 34 is formed with a serration part 341 on the lower end thereof and constructed to be protruded exceeding the gear box 32 downwardly (See FIG. 3.).
As shown in FIG. 3, the clutch mechanism 40 includes a spin shaft block 42 fixed to the lower end of the gear box 32, a spring block 46 disposed on the one side of the spin shaft block 42, which is engaged with the serration part 341 of the lower pulsator shaft 34 and fixed to a pulley 44 of the belt connection means, and an one-way spring 48 disposed to be surrounded the spin shaft block 42 and the spring block 46 (See FIG. 1). Here, a tight fastening state and a releasing state of the one-way spring 48 is controlled according to the rotating direction thereof.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, the gear means constructed in the gear box 32 of the transmission 30 includes a pinion gear 50 attached to the lower end of the upper pulsator shaft 33, an eccentric crank 52 formed with a rack gear portion 521 to be engaged with the pinion gear 50, a first gear 54 disposed on the same rotating axial line to be engaged with the eccentric crank 52, and a second gear 56 attached to the upper end of the lower pulsator shaft 34 to be engaged with the first gear 54.
The brake means includes a brake disk 60 disposed under the gear box 32, a brake frictional portion 62 formed on the top surface of a frame 19 of suspension means, which has a corresponding shape to the brake disk 60, and position adjustment means (not shown) for controlling the separation and contact states between the brake disk 60 and the brake frictional portion 62 by vertically adjusting the position of the gear box 32 according to the operating direction of the driving motor 20 (See FIG. 1).
A washing process of the pulsator type washing machine constructed as described above includes the following steps in order: 1) a water supply step for supplying water into the cleansing basket 14 through the water tab 17; 2) a cleansing step for circulating the water and laundry during a desired time via the rotating operation of the pulsator 16; 3) a rinsing step for rinsing the laundry as much as certain times by supplying clear rinsing water not containing any detergents after draining the water through the drain valve 18; and 4) a dehydrating step for driving the cleansing basket 14 at a high speed to dehydrate the laundry.
In the water supply step of the washing process, the water just entered through the water tab 17 is changed into a cleansing water containing a detergent with by passing in a detergent container. Also, in the cleansing step, a removal work of contaminants clinging to the laundry is performed under a chemical operation of detergent contained in the cleansing water as well as a physical operation of the pulsator 16. The pulsator 16 is repeatedly rotated, that is intermittently reversed, in forward and backward by the transmission 30, so that a both directional water stream composed of a left-and-right water stream and an up-and-down water stream can be formed to effectively perform the cleansing work of the laundry.
Then, in a state that the clear rinsing water not containing the detergent is supplied during the rinsing step, the detergent clinging to the laundry is also effectively removed by using the both directional water streams formed by the rotation of the pulsator 16 in the same manner with the cleansing step. Finally, in the dehydrating step, the cleansing basket 14 is rotated in one direction at a high speed after the rinsing water is completely drained, then the water contained in the laundry can be discharged via the dehydration holes 14a due to centrifugal force. In this case, the laundry is tightly contacting with the inner wall of the cleansing basket 14.
In the dehydrating step, since the cleansing basket 14 and the pulsator 16 are simultaneously rotated in the same direction, it is possible to prevent the damage of the laundry from being caught to the pulsator 16. Also, the water discharged through the dehydration holes 14a of the cleansing basket 14 is drained out of the washing machine as soon as the drain valve 18 is opened.
Meanwhile, the rotating operation of the cleansing basket 14 and the pulsator 16 in all steps are performed by the driving part as described above. The operation of the driving part will be explained in detail as follows.
First of all, in the cleansing step, the pulley 44 is rotated in clockwise direction by the driving force of the driving motor 20, and then the spring block 46 connected with the pulley 44 and the lower pulsator shaft 34 coupled with the serration portion of the spring block 46 are rotated. At this time, the one-way spring 48 loosened, and since the brake disk 60 and the brake frictional portion 62 are in tightly contact with each other, so the gear box 32 is in a fixed state. In addition, as the lower pulsator shaft 34 is rotated, the first gear 54 engaged with the second gear 56 and the second gear 56 within the gear box 32 are rotated, and at the same time, the eccentric crank 52 disposed on the same rotating axial line of the first gear 54 is actuated.
In this case, the eccentric crank 52 is linearly reciprocated about the rotating axial line due to the structural feature thereof, then the upper pulsator shaft 33 can be reciprocated by the pinion gear 50 engaged with the rack gear portion 521 of the eccentric crank 52, and consequently the pulsator 16 can be achieved in the forward and backward rotation.
Additionally, in the dehydrating step, the driving motor 20 is rotated in counterclockwise direction in opposite to the cleansing step, and the spring block 46 connected with the pulley 44 and the lower pulsator shaft 34 coupled with the spring block 46 are rotated in counterclockwise direction. In this case, the one-way spring 48 is fastened so that the spring block 46 and the spin shaft block 42 can be coupled, and the brake disk 60 and the brake frictional part 62 are separated by the operation of the position adjustment mechanism. Therefore, the gear box 32 and the spin shaft 35 are rotated with the spin shaft block 42. Since, the upper pulsator shaft 33 is rotated in the same direction, then the cleansing basket 14 and the pulsator 16 are rotated at the same time to perform a dehydrating work.
According to the related pulsator type washing machine, because the pulsator 16 is rotated in forward and backward to generate the complex water stream, the effect of cleansing is relatively high. And, the conversion from the cleansing step to the dehydrating step is automatically performed due to the conversion of operating direction of the driving motor 20 and the linking structure of the transmission 30 and the clutch mechanism 40.
However, substantial problems exist in this related construction. First of all, the structures of the transmission 30 and the clutch mechanism 40 for transferring the driving force of the driving motor 20 to the pulsator 16 and the cleansing basket 14 have complex structures, which deteriorates the productivity of the washing machine. Also, since the cleansing work is performed only by the simple forward and backward rotation of the pulsator 16, it is impossible to achieve various cleansing operations suitable for the feature of the laundry, thereby deteriorating a merchant ability of the washing machine.
The present invention has been made to overcome the above-described problems. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a washing machine having a floatage clutch, which can smoothly switch a power transmission state in the conversion between the cleansing step and the dehydrating step by using the floatage thereof, and which can secure the stability of the switching process.
To achieve the above objects, there is provided a washing machine comprises a water tub; a cleansing basket rotatably contained within the water tub; a pulsator rotatably mounted on the bottom surface of the cleansing basket, having a wing part for forming a water stream, a hub part disposed in the center of the wing part, and a hollow shaft part protruded from the bottom of the hub part exceeding the cleansing basket downwardly; a driving motor for generating a driving force required to rotate the cleansing basket and the pulsator; a transmission for transmitting the driving force of the driving motor to the cleansing basket and the pulsator, having a hollow dryer shaft integrated to the cleansing basket; and a washing shaft penetrating the hollow dryer shaft, of which the upper end passes the hollow shaft part of the pulsator and then is fixed to the hub part, and of which the lower end is connected with the driving motor; and a floatage clutch for allowing the cleansing basket to selectively cooperate with the pulsator by being intermittently actuated depending on the existence and nonexistence of water, having a float engaged with the washing shaft to be capable of moving up and down and linked with the hollow shaft part of the pulsator to be capable of moving up and down due to floatage, and a fixed member fixed to the upper end of the hollow dryer shaft to be separated from and coupled with the float at the lower side thereof.
The float of the floatage clutch includes a hub portion inserted into the hollow shaft part of the pulsator, and a tube portion, disposed around the hub portion, for allowing the water to be flown into a space defined between the hub portion and the tube portion, wherein the fixed member is constructed as a shaft of which the lower end is connected with the cleansing basket and of which the upper end is inserted into the hub portion of the float.
The water absorption holes are formed on the top surface of the pulsator, and a centrifugal wing portion is provided on the bottom surface of the pulsator, wherein the water absorbed via the water absorption holes pass a filtering net through a fluid channel between the water tub and the cleansing basket by shaping the tube portion of the float as a conical form to facilitate the smooth movement of the water via the water absorption holes.